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More 1960s Documentary Films in HD

Peace, Civil Rights and Farm Worker Films go HD

Three more 1960s documentary films from the Harvey Richards Media Archive film collection are available in high definition. The newly converted films are Dream Deferred, Factory Farms and No Greater Cause.The first round of high definition film conversions included Decision in the Streets, We’ll Never Turn Back and The Land Is Rich. These new HD versions offer film and video makers, publishers and other creatives improved image quality derived directly from the original film, upgrading the previous versions which all came from video transfers back in the 1990’s.

Dream Deferred is the second civil rights film made in Mississippi in the 1960s to be available in high definition. The other film is We’ll Never Turn Back (1963). Fannie Lou Hamer appears in both films. In Dream Deferred she appears addressing an assembly of sharecroppers in a church during her campaign for election in the ‘freedom votes’ for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. She declared “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired”.

Factory Farms is the second film on California farm workers to be available in high definition. The other farm worker film in HD is The Land Is Rich. Factory Farms documents 1959 labor conditions for farm workers and reviews the history of union organizing in California agriculture.

1959, California. Screen shot from Factory Farms.

His four films on California agriculture were made from the worker’s and union’s point of view, designed to help the organizing drives of the United Packing House Workers Union (Factory Farms), the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (The Harvesters, Uno Veintecinco) and the United Farm Workers (The Land Is Rich).

1968, San Francisco, California. Uniformed soldiers march for peace in Vietnam. Screen shot from No Greater Cause.

No Greater Cause is the second of five films about the peace movement in the 1960s to become available in high definition. The other peace movement documentary in HD is Decision in the Streetswhich contains footage of both civil rights and peace movement demonstrations. No Greater Cause chronicles the height of the anti-Vietnam war movement in the San Francisco Bay Area, featuring footage of the massive confrontations between Oakland police and anti-draft protesters in 1967, the giant march and rally against the war at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco in April 1967; and the San Francisco GI for Peace marches of 1968.

1967, Oakland Army Induction Center, California. Sit in protester on his way to jail during Stop the Draft Week. Screen shot from No Greater Cause.

The Harvey Richards Media Archive now offers HD version of six of the total of 22 films. More film conversion are coming and will be announced here as they happen.

About the Harvey Richards Media Archive: The Harvey Richards Media Archive contains a treasure of images of the political and social justice upheavals of the 1960s on the west coast and of the devastating impact of capitalist resource exploitation in western forests, and mines among other subjects. All of his 22 films are available for streaming, downloading and as DVDs. The interest and demand for his images has continued to grow along with the interest in the legacy of the 1960’s political and cultural upsurge. Estuary Press is the home of the Harvey Richards Media Archive video and photo image collections.